Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Insight - Time Warner Merger Completed

Insight Communications is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Cable. The merger became official today as the two companies completed the deal that was announced last August.

No immediate changes are expected in the service to customers as Time Warner Cable begins an extended process of consolidating the Insight operations in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky into theirs. Most of the friendly and capable Insight employees with whom customers have interacted for years will continue to provide cable, Internet and phone service on behalf of Time Warner Cable.

A handful of senior managers, including me, will depart immediately. As a result, this is also a fond farewell post on behalf of Michael's Insight. I have throroughly enjoyed writing about the cable business, services, and other high-tech developments over the years.

And I have cherished the opportunity to directly interact with customers who contacted me either through comments on this blog or directly via my email address which was clearly posted on this site. Over the years I have heard specific suggestions about how to improve our offerings, how we messed up, and what people thought of my views. Some comments were enlightening, some made me proud, and some were painful. But it was all in the interest of listening, hearing and communicating.

I will continue to be involved in the cable/broadband world. I'm just not sure where or when. Meanwhile, I will stop writing daily but may occasionally post some thoughts or an update on my whereabouts right here on this site which will become my personal blog.

Time Warner Cable has their own blog -- "Untangled" -- which is terrific. Check it out if you want the lastest information about TWC and cable industry services and issues, much like you were getting here on Michael's Insight.

Thank you for your interest in my views. And to those of you who are customers, thank you so much for your business and loyalty over the past 27 years!

Comments

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Currently we get our IPs from the ISP. The ISP owns them and leases them to us. I didn't netgoiate this it predates me, because I never would have allowed this.But again, we talked to Lightpath about 4-5 years ago about this. And we weren't really serious so we didn't go any further than talking to the sales weenie.

And to think my ISP was looking to get us to add an adiiadontl T to our account doubling our bandwidth and it would have cost us more than what you got which would be 100x what we get in bandwidth. I may have to look into Cogent and propose it. Shoot for half what you got we would probably pay the same amount only headache is the fact that we lease a full class C.

Hmm im from India I've read somewhere that u were from NY..Now I used to work for AOL, Covad, SBC, Verizon, Sprint and AT T berfoe I finally stopped working as a DSL tech support. Honestly the attrition is so bad for tech support that 30% of the employees leave. Thats why you are more likely to get a new tech agent who is trying to help you out, but dosnt knw crap about the process !Always ask for a supervisor if you get even the slightest feeling they dont knw wht they are talking about.

Unfortunately, I think Salt will beat Inception this weekend. For one, Salt is a lttile over 90 minutes long, almost an hour shorter than Inception, so it can have more show times all weekend, therefore more possible tickets. I loved Inception, but I think the audience for it pretty much all came out the 1st weekend, since they loved Nolan and were waiting for it. I'm not so confident about people coming out for repeat viewings of it, since I think a ton of people didn't like it because of how confusing it is to follow. I think audiences are generally dumb and looking for light-hearted entertainment like Salt. Inception will be up for lots of categories at the Oscars (Director, Screenplay, Editing, maybe Best Actor, and the technical stuff), but Salt will make more overall unfortunately. It's sad, but that's how audiences are.

Heidi - Heidi Bruch here Liz's friend:-) I check your blog every so often and love to see how dalinrg Gabrielle is. I am DYING to know where the dress is from in her photo from 8/12 Love it. I would love to see the brands of some of those darlng fashions you have found for her always on the look out for my own daughter:-) Hope you are well she is gorgeous!

- Hi Heidi!I check your blog often too. (Have tried to leave a couple cntmeoms but don't have a Google ID to do so!) Hayden is incredible! It's been fun to watch her grow. Amazing how fast the time goes by. The dress in the 8/12/09 photo is from Janie and Jack a sweet gift from a friend the day Gabrielle was born.Maybe we will get to see you guys when we are in Seattle in October for at a McDougall Halloween get-together!Cheers!Jessica

I have an Insight Business Account and I have been very dissatisfied with the service. I have been trying to cancel the service since the first month we've had it (and simply remain having home internet service), but each time I talk to someone at Insight, they are rude, I get transferred multiple times, no one will give out a phone number, and they promise to call back but never do. Jonathan Downing at Insight has told me that the only way for me to cancel the service would be to pay the remainder of the year's charges in full. I hope that you will contact me so that we can come to a more ethical solution on this. I have been a loyal Insight customer for over 10 years and I don't appreciate being treated like this.

Even with a 20 monthly discount I pay more for a 15 down 1 up internet connection Than other people pay for 30 down 3 up. I pay 60 dollars and people who are close to me and lucky enough to have a choice in cable operator pay 50 dollars. I pay more for half the speed. I doubt that will change with everything going down now . I hope things do change because before Insight only cared about Kentucky Ohio gets left in the cold

Amy, Wayne and I have absolutely loved wtihcang you grow with your photography (and as a Mom of course) When I talk to anyone about your photos I always tell them that I've never seen anyone better, professional or otherwise. You just have a wonderful gift for seeing just the right picture at just the right time. We are so proud of you for how far you've come, just keep going girl, you can DO it all! Love you, Sandy

To be the best you can be, you have to constantly clngleahe yourself and push yourself to reach new heights.Nothing gets you better than good competition and players who force you to have to raise your game. Tennis Patrons, we should have a ranking or ladder system for all tennis players residing in the Santa Barbara community. To give everyone the best competition they can get around town we need a weekly updated ranking for a few different divisions with ways for the players to contact themselves and play clngleahe matches. A fun yearly banquet with some awards would be fun too. Singles and Doubles since most people around town are mostly doubles players. I can head the open division if any players want to start this process and see if others follow.Let me know what you think SB and bring on the competition. Congratulations Marty Davis for your Hall of Fame Induction I saw on Inside Tennis.Leo Basica, Blake Muller, Ryan Heinberg, Adam Webster, Andras Bori and myself want a piece of your some Gauchosover the summer.

Thank you for keeping us informed through the years and I wish you well in your future endeavors.
I hope you find the time to write for this or another blog as I have always found your posts interesting as well as an insightful (no pun intended) view from a cable insider.
On a side note. If you are seeking employment the company I work for can use a part time painter LOL.
Best of luck to you,
Paul

i'm glad that the employees will be here for the near future. I just hope that time warner dosen't over build like they did it in ohio when they bought adelfia cable. the lines over there are a joke, but i do hope that with the new found capital of time warner they will be able to build out to people that insight just couldn't. due to not having the money to build out to them, like the city of kenton and other small cities that were just alittle too small or just alittle too far away from the hard lines.

i enjoyed working at insight and i also enjoyed working for time warner lets hope they take the best of both companies and make them even better

You have been an inspiration in my life since I joined Vision Cable in 1981. The direction and motivation provided by you moved our company and the industry forward to greater heights. Most of all you made us feel that we employees together made an impact and shared in the overall success of the company.

You always listened to your employees and treated them as family. This is your success.

Best wishes for your future. I've really enjoyed this unique blog over the past few years. It has been pretty well balanced and has confronted some of the interesting issues that confront cable providers, especially over the top video. I always thought it was cool that you spoke favorably about using Netflix and Roku. That might be heresy among some cable execs I would think.

Hey Mike ---- I have nothing but fond memories of the time I worked with you, Roger Worboys and the whole Insight staff 20+ years ago. You built a great company. I wish you all the best and thanks for giving me the opportunity to succeed.

99% or more of the price in the sale of Insight did not go to Michael. Yes he made good money in the deal but he put in alot of knowledge and hard work for Insight. I wish him the best in future endevors and hope that Time Warner can keep up the reliablity of service I have come to rely on from Insight.